Locked, Barred, Guarded: A Story of Eries
by Aria Nereid Fassa
Summary: like the title says, an Eries fanfic. with Allen. and Serena thrown in too!
1. "Prelude to an Overture Never Played"

Title: Locked, Barred, Guarded: A Story of Eries  
  
Author: Aria Nereid Fassa a.k.a. Hitomi Eries (H.E.) Aston-Schezar  
  
Disclaimer: Tenkuu no Escaflowne, Eries and most of these characters belong to their original creator Kawamori Shoji & co. Except for Sian, who is a figment of my own imagination.  
  
Author's Note: Just when i had begun to despair of ever finding the beautiful Eries fanfic i had been seeking for so long...ta-dah--i discovered _The Circle's End_ by Sherline, followed by _The Secret Life of a Girl_ by Aerika S, both of which inspired me while writing this. Oh, and i listened to a lot of depressed/angsty chick music writing this, so if this seems overly-neurotic/Ally-McBeal-esque, you'll know why. Annie Lennox, Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey just seem to make me think of Eries and vice versa...And all the song lyrics sprinkled liberally throughout are my woefully inadequate substitute for illustrations. In my mind's eye this fic has gorgeous illuminations in the style of Alphonse Mucha, but since i can't draw worth a damn and can't get any1 to illustrate this for love or money, i make do with song lyrics. Most of my fics will prolly have BGM, or a soundtrack. My apologies to Hitomi's Tarot deck for thinking it was bent on Allen & Millerna being together, because as Aerika S pointed out in her review, that was just Hitomi being hysterical...Rating's been upped from G to PG because i realized it's going to get mildly kinky later on [heheheheheh]  
  
  
"Prelude to an Overture Never Played"  
  
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there was a young woman named Eries Aria Aston who just so happened to be a princess of the kingdom, called Asturia. One day (on the 12th of Green) she was out on the grounds of Castle Palas with her friend Sian, when she noticed her older sister, who'd been somewhat of a recluse lately, with a very striking man--he had blond hair of a shade more golden than her sister's, and her own, pale hair.  
  
She nudged Sian in the arm. "Hey, who's that with Marlene?"  
  
"Him? Must be the latest Knight Caeli, come to join the guard..." Sian Argosy squinted at the pair, blowing dark bangs out of her eyes. "S'posed to be some sorta genius swordsman..."   
  
Eries tapped a finger against her chin. "Oh yes, now I remember! Allen Schezar--wonder boy of the military arts championship--he's only about our age..." Palas, capital of Asturia, wasn't called the City of Intrigue for nothing. The gossip network was very sophisticated, and Eries could be an excellent listener when she wanted, although she paid hardly any attention to the usual who's-doing-what-to-whom. She'd been elated when Uncle Nueva had suggested taking her to see the archery competition at the military arts tournament, but it'd been decided the excursion would be more beneficial for Marlene.  
  
They watched with interest as the Princess Marlene and the knight stood next to each other and conversed in low voices. Sian sniffed, lifting her chin in the direction of Marlene and the blond man. "They're looking plenty cozy, don't ya think? Seems rather improper--"  
  
Personally Eries was inclined to agree. But, with a small grin and an raised eyebrow, she again jabbed her. "You're a strange one to talk about propriety, you cross-dresser, you!" Sian's shirt-and-trouser outfits provided Eries with an endless supply of ammunition for teasing her, though she did admire Sian's audacity in wearing them almost everyday, especially since combined with her boyishly short haircut and an enviably lanky figure, Sian made quite a pretty "boy".  
  
"I'll have you know, uppity lil royal personage," Sian began, in a snobby nasal tone, "women in pants are all the rage in Egzardia!"  
  
The two broke out into stifled laughter, then remembered themselves and shushed. From behind some topiary they resumed furtive observation of Marlene and the blond man.  
  
The knight, however, had apparently noticed them, because he seemed to gesture toward the topiary.  
  
"Oi. Eri-ko, we're busted..." said Sian.  
  
"So much for our brilliant career in covert ops. Nothing for it but to join the welcoming committee." She moved diffidently toward her sister with Sian in tow.  
  
"Oh. It's you, imôto-san," said Marlene as they walked up to her. "May I present Allen Schezar VIII, our new Knight Caeli. Allen-san, she is my sister, the Princess Eries, and her friend Sian Argosy. Sian's father is Riding Master here."  
  
"Word of your fine swordsmanship precedes you, Allen-san. We are fortunate to have such a skilled addition to the guard," Eries said, determined to be as gracious as she knew how, to make up for their faux pas. Allen Schezar took the hand she held out to him, and bent low over it, his blue eyes looking up at her face. "It is an honor to serve the court, Your Highness," he murmured. Eries felt her heart skip a beat. She dismissed it as a palpitation, even though she never had a palpitation before, having enjoyed fine health all her fifteen years. Glancing at her sister, she saw Princess Marlene's brow--which caused the kingdom's swains to praise its alabaster purity, in iambic pentamenter, no less--marred by a small but definite crease.  
  
When the knight let go, Sian caught his hand and gave it a quick shake. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Allen-san." Her voice was still somewhat nasal, as if she was holding her breath in. Eries looked at her, concerned, and gave her the "let's skedaddle" signal, darting her expressive eyes to the side. "Please excuse us now, we were just on our way elsewhere. We're sorry we interrupted." Her friend had already started moving away with a little bow to Marlene and the knight. Eries strode to catch up and linked arms with her best friend. "Something wrong, Sian?"   
  
Sian put a hand on the region of her heart. "Got charm coming out the orifices, that one."  
  
"Oh, so you noticed it too?" Eries grinned impishly up at her friend.  
  
Sian rolled her eyes. "Did you see the expression on your sister's face? She's quite taken with him. Eri-ko, that guy's trouble."  
  
"Tell me something I don't know." Eries risked a glance over her shoulder at the pair and was surprised to see Allen was also looking in her direction. Half a moment later his gaze slid smoothly back to Marlene.  
  
  
I'm one of sixteen vestal virgins / leaving for the coast / and though my eyes be open / they might as well be closed  
--"Whiter Shade of Pale", Annie Lennox, _Medusa_  
  
  
~next chapter: "Courante"~ 


	2. "Courante"

Locked, Barred, Guarded: A Story of Eries - Chapter 2  
Author's Note: Because i thought this needed some more exposition, i've inserted this chapter after "Prelude...", so now "Gavotte" is Chapter 3.   
  
  
"Courante"  
  
A week later, the Princess Marlene and the knight were still being sighted together on more occasions than were strictly necessary, and not just by Eries and Sian. So as soon as her best friend arrived that day Eries pulled her aside and said, "For Marlene's own good, let's go hunting."  
  
The two of them headed for the library, where Eries found the latest copy of the Asturian Social Register. They opened it to the page with the entry for "Schezar". Sian read from it: "Sizable ancestral estate located outside of Palas...only son of the adventurer Leon Schezar and his wife Encia, deceased...middle name Crusade...a younger sister, Serena--around Princess Millerna's age..."  
  
Eries had scooted her chair closer to Sian's and taken hold of one side of the open book. "You know...I actually saw her once. She and Allen-san and Lady Encia were guests at one of Millerna's birthday parties. Serena was this sweet little towheaded creature who smiled easily and charmed everyone, and their mother had perfectly lovely manners. And they were both even more beautiful than Allen-san, if you can believe that." She bumped Sian's shoulder with her own.  
  
Sian would've howled with mirth if they weren't in the library. So she settled for a chortle. "Hey, Darien was going on at dinner about swordfights again, and he said our latest and greatest knight was trained by the Fanelian Lord Balgus Ganesha, who's _the_ god of anyone who's ever wielded a sword, to hear him tell it." Darien was Sian's older brother.  
  
Footsteps at the library's entrance made them look up just in time to see Princess Marlene walk by, followed momentarily by the cause of their information-gathering. He turned his head slightly to glance at them with a curious expression. They quickly ducked behind the book. Heads collided.  
  
"Eep." Sian rubbed the small bump forming on her forehead.  
  
"Ya, speak of the devil!" said Eries, one hand on _her_ head. "D'you think he heard us talking?"   
  
"From way over there? Don't worry about it--he's a lot of things, but "person with superhearing" isn't one of them."  
  
"I just wish I knew why he looked at us like that."  
  
"Prolly just a lil concerned cause we saw him hanging around Marlene. _Again_."   
  
The two started looking in the book again, but did not get more of anything useful on the knight, until the next day when Eries was coming out of her suite of rooms on her way to her archery lesson. Darva, a rather gabby and credulous woman who did Marlene's hair, stopped her in the hall to ask her if she had seen Princess Marlene. She was idly considering making the suggestion that they look for Allen-san instead because quite possibly Marlene would be there also, but apparently Darva was thinking much the same thing because then she said, "Oh dear, I do so hope she isn't with that Schezar boy again."  
  
"What's wrong with them being...friends?" Eries asked, quickly assuming a slightly confused, "innocent-bystander" expression. Or at least she hoped it was.  
  
"Milady, hadn't you heard? In the Year of Crystal Northeast his father left the family to go adventuring in the Dark Continent. But some say he left because of a girl! A foreigner, mind you."  
  
"Oh?" Eries prayed her elfin ears weren't perking up at this bit of gossip. It was ignoble of her, and would put paid to her "I'm-just-an-innocent-bystander" act.  
  
"Who knows if a boy with such a scandalous father can be trusted? And that's not all, his sister vanished under mysterious circumstances when she was just five years old and he was the last one who saw her!"  
  
_Huh?_ Surely Darva wasn't insinuating that an eleven-year old Allen-san had a hand in her disappearance? That was just plain woolly-headed, not to mention pretty damn low, even for Palas's Informal League for the Propagation of Rumour, Innuendo and Character Defamation.  
  
"So of course Lady Encia died of grief soon after." Darva paused in her recitation of these tragic events to let out a theatrical sigh.   
  
Eries seized this opportunity to escape her. "I'm going to be late for archery," she fibbed; it was a good twenty minutes before the lesson started, but she enjoyed it greatly and always arrived early. "I expect you'll find Marlene somewhere around," she said as she hurried away, smirking because the older woman tut-tutted at the mention of archery.  
  
She'd been thinking about ways to unobtrusively pump the in-court gossip society for information about the knight, but hadn't imagined someone like Darva would just come right out and tell her things about him without her even having to pry a bit!   
  
By the time archery practice was over, it was early evening and Eries was still mulling over what she'd heard and simultaneously concentrating on her handling of the longbow, when she walked right into someone. "Pardon me," she said automatically and would've brushed past, but the other person spoke and she just about had a heart attack.  
  
"Are you alright, Eries-hime?"  
  
She looked up at him in shock, and before she knew it, words were pouring out of her mouth: "Oh, I'm so sorry! About your sister being missing and all!"  
  
Allen-san stared at her.   
  
As so often happens when one has blurted out something one shouldn't have, Eries kept talking. "I saw her once, at the party on Millerna's sixth birthday, you know? You were there with your mother and I remember Serena being such a sweet child she prolly outshone the birthday girl and it must've been only a few weeks before she went missing so it was sad to hear about her being gone because I didn't know..." she broke off, guilt-ridden, seeing that Allen looked pained.   
  
When he didn't say anything, she looked down and started drawing crazy patterns with her shoe[1]. "I really am sorry for your loss, Allen-san," she finished lamely.  
  
[1. i must acknowledge that bit is from "Drawing Crazy Patterns" by Texas, off of _White on Blond_.]  
  
His voice was so soft she thought she'd merely imagined hearing it: "Thanks."   
  
She looked up, and there was a tiny wistful smile on his face and a glimmer of something in his blue eyes. She smiled back uncertainly. Then she tossed off a polite inanity about having to get ready for dinner, did a snappy little about-face and beat a hasty retreat to her room before she made an even bigger fool of herself.  
  
That night Eries had what would be the first in a protracted succession of dreams about Allen-san. The two of them were sitting facing each other, talking. He was confiding in her about his family. Details she could not possibly know were discussed, but it all just seemed to make sense, with the strange clarity of dream logic.   
  
And if in waking moments she always properly referred to the Knight Caeli as Allen-san, in dreams she had no such compunction; he was just Allen. And Eries-hime was just Eries.  
  
  
The way you're bathed in light / Reminds me of that night / God led me down into your rose garden of trust / And I was swept away / With nothing left to say / Some helpless fool yeah I was lost / In a swoon of peace / You're all I need to find / So when the time is right / Come to me sweetly, come to me / Come to me  
--"The Dolphin's Cry," Live, _The Distance to Here_  
  
  
~next chapter: "Gavotte"~ 


	3. "Gavotte"

Title: Locked, Barred, Guarded: A Story of Eries - Chapter 3  
  
"Gavotte"  
  
3rd of Red. Eries looked out the crystalline floor-to-ceiling windows. Okay, the coast was clear.   
  
This room was cavernous, with parquet floors, which made it the perfect ballroom. She put her music box on a side table and opened it. It began to play a tune that for some reason put her in mind of the Mystic Moon.[1] She started humming along with it and doing a few steps.   
  
[1. The music box tune is the Gavotte from Partita #1 in E Major by J.S. Bach, as transcribed by Rachmaninoff and as performed by the Turtle Island String Quartet and the Modern Mandolin Quartet in _The Bach Variations_.]  
  
_Hn...This really isn't much fun without Sian..._ Her best friend, who shared her appreciation of this music, was away visiting relatives in Egzardia. She shrugged and kept on dancing. When the music wound down, she started it up again.  
  
"May I?" said a very familiar voice, very softly. She'd been hearing it in her dreams most nights since he'd joined the palace guard. She whirled around to confirm her summat pointy ears weren't playing a cruel and unusual trick on her. _Ai-ya._ Standing in front of the door cleverly constructed to look exactly like just another wall panel, was _the_ Knight Caeli himself, Allen Crusade Schezar VIII. Puffed sleeves and all.  
  
"Allen-san!" Her whisper was made sharp by surprise and embarrassment. "Looking for Marlene?"   
  
He frowned. "Your sister had to meet with the Duke of Freid. He arrived suddenly today."   
  
_Oh...Uh-oh._ "Well, what are you doing in here, then?" _Shouldn't you be off someplace counting the minutes til you see her again?_   
  
"I heard the music, so I looked--"  
  
"You were watching--"  
  
"For a little while. May I offer my assistance, Eries-hime?"  
  
She eyed him doubtfully. "You know this dance? I didn't think too many people around here were familiar with it."  
  
"Ah. That is why you have no one to partner you?"  
  
"My regular partner's away." Eries noted that he raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Sian?"   
  
Eries nodded. _What's it to you anyway? You have no right to look so disapproving like that._ "So do you know it or not?"   
  
"No, I don't. But it doesn't look that difficult. What would I have to do?" He came closer.   
  
Eries could feel flutterbys in her stomach doing some highly complicated maneuvers.   
  
"Is it just me, or do you look more and more like those Fortona Temple statues? The ones that look like their thoughts are so deep no mere unenlightened mortal could possibly understand?" Allen observed, looking speculatively at her.  
  
"Oh no, don't be feeling all special or anything, I'm like this to everyone." She feigned complete nonchalance. Good thing her "serene-highness face" was still on. She was afraid she'd begun having a anxiety attack since he appeared in the room. "Fine. Let's give it a try. And better keep your feet out of my way, I'll have to lead for now." She took his hand, utterly amazed that hers wasn't shaking from being _this_ close to him. _Thank the heavens for small mercies._  
  
The music box had wound down by this time. But she didn't start it up again, instead she counted out the steps of the dance. "Alright, first you bow and I curtsey. Then it's one-two-three-four..." Carefully she showed him the basic steps, and when they had gotten them down, she started humming the music.  
  
_Of course he catches on quick. Allen Schezar is incapable of doing anything badly!_ Eries lowered her eyes under the pretense of watching the movements of their feet, then looked up at him from under her lashes. _All this, and a sense of rhythm too!_ she thought resentfully.  
  
She resented him being so pretty. She resented him being _the_ Knight Caeli. She resented the way he only had to open his mouth and every female at court would await with bated breath whatever it was he might say, even if it was merely some comment on the weather[2]. She resented the way he and Marlene were sneaking around together--and not doing it very well either, she added if she felt particularly acerbic. And yet despite all that, she had a thing for him that would not stop. Him! The guy her very much affianced older sister was seeing on the sly. The guy her little sister Millerna worshipped. How pathetic could this situation possibly get?   
  
[2. Yep, i got that comment off of "Foolish Games" by Jewel, from _Pieces of You_.]  
  
It wasn't as if there weren't any other nice young men around. But noooooo--she didn't want nice. She wanted _him_. Her glands apparently labored under the impression he was the only man in the world. And at the moment, her glands were having the time of her life while her mind was screaming bloody murder.  
  
"What???" Allen stopped suddenly in mid-step and Eries nearly danced into him but caught herself just in time. "You were looking at me exactly like the guy who tried to run me through in the practice swordfights." Allen clasped her wrist and looked her in the eyes as if, through them, he could see into her thoughts.  
  
She blinked, disengaged his hand from her arm. "I'm sorry, Allen-san, I guess this isn't working. Perhaps you should go see if Marlene's schedule has an opening now."  
  
Allen quirked an eyebrow. "We were doing fine until you got that strange light in your eyes. Alright, I'm going. Thank you for the dance, Eries-hime." He took her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed the back of it gallantly.   
  
"And I thank you, Allen-san, for your help." She dropped a curtsey.  
  
He smiled his suave little smile and performed the corresponding bow. "Another time, perhaps?"  
  
_Don't bet the family fortune on it, hotshot. I think I'd better keep my peace of mind._ But she only replied, "Perhaps."  
  
He walked away, his chin-length hair bright in the dimly lit room. _Oh, well...At least my hair's still prettier than his..._ Eries consoled herself with that thought, and a silent, faintly hysterical giggle at the silliness of it all.  
  
  
~next chapter: "Intermezzo"~ 


	4. "Intermezzo"

Title: Locked, Barred, Guarded: A Story of Eries - Chapter 3.5...oh, okay, make that Chapter 4  
Author's Note: This is a peculiar situation i attempt to write in this chapter. It just came to me and i wanted to give it a shot, even if it's prolly a very stupid idea. Yes, this is the kinkyness i mentioned in Chapter 1's A/N. bwahahahahaaa!  
  
  
"Intermezzo"  
  
Everyone was lookin' / But I saw you first  
--"Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)", John Mellencamp, _Mr. Happy Go Lucky_  
  
  
Days after "the ballroom incident," as Eries now thought of the dance she had with Allen-san, she was in the otherwise deserted library again, reading a genetics text smuggled out of Zaibach. The subject fascinated her. It had explanations for her features being dissimilar to her mother's and sisters'. She had arrived at the conclusion that elfin ears and the odd spotty birthmark were recessive traits, and she was a genetic "sport"--or something of the kind. She was in a slightly irascible mood, however. Millerna, then Marlene's lady's-maid, then a pageboy with a message to deliver to Marlene had all stopped by to ask where the eldest princess was. So when she heard someone make a slight throat-clearing noise behind her, she didn't take her eyes off the book but said testily, "Am I wearing a sign that says 'Ask me where Marlene-hime is?'"  
  
"Not that I can see." Allen-san replied, with a laugh.  
  
_Cool, that's the ticket,_ she said to herself, before twisting around in her chair to look at him. "Oh, it's you," she said coolly. "My mistake, it's just I've been universal Marlene locator all morning." She mustered an off-handed pleasantness, in case he might somehow guess she had stupid dreams about him at night. _And in the daytime too, come to that..._ the perverse imp that lived in her head added evilly. _Argh!_ she shoved the imp off of her train of thought. Then, as though the idea had just occurred to her, she said, "_You_ wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?" _Yes, put him on the spot instead._  
  
He shrugged noncommitally, glancing off to the side, but he recovered and gave her a long, assessing look. It made her insides stew. She squirmed inwardly at that blue gaze upon her. "Eries-hime, may I ask you something?" He side-stepped her question with one of his own.  
  
She wondered what was on his mind. "Ask."  
  
"Are you and Sian...ah..."  
  
"Are Sian and I what?" demanded Eries, wishing he'd get to the point.  
  
"Are you and she...like, well...yuri[1]?"  
  
[1. yuri = female x female in Japanese.]  
  
_So that was why he kept giving us those strange looks!_ On the one hand, Eries was a bit put out that he made that assumption, and really, it was none of his business in any case. But on the other hand, the sheer absurdity of it forced her to suppress a laugh. The imp was back. In full force. _What, does he think that because I'm not falling all over him like Marlene is?_  
  
"Ah. Figured that out, did you? You know what, would you please do us the honor of being biological father of our child someday?"   
  
"Er." He was such a pretty color scheme when he was flustered. All gold and pink and blue and pale; it was like looking at a painting of a cherub. Only he was more like a cherub grown into a seraph, the kind that heralded tidings of great joy. And seraphs never had the look of bewilderment that was on his pretty face.  
  
"It's not what you're thinking," she laughed. "You wouldn't have to come near either of us. The Zaibach have reportedly developed a way to start babies in test tubes. It's quite efficient, really." Eries was mildly astonished at the utter nonsense she was spouting.  
  
Allen's jaw had gone slack and he was just staring dazedly.  
  
"Think about it, will you? There's no rush," she said airily, as though she asked men to donate their genetic material everyday. Before she completely lost control of her facial expression, she stuck her nose back in the book. "I have to read some more about it; we'll just get back to you for your answer one of these days." This last was said dismissively, and Allen-san apparently got the hint because he'd started backing away from her.  
  
Looking up from the book, she found that he'd gone. She put her head down on her arms and chuckled til she hiccupped.  
  
The next day, the princesses were attending an recital by a small group of talented young music scholars whose education was financed by a trust fund established by the royal family. It was nominally Marlene-hime's project, as she was the one with some musical talent. Two of the palace guard, including Allen-san, were on security detail to the three princesses.   
  
During the intermission, Eries was in the lobby saying hello to a young musician she had become friendly with in the course of her involvement with coordinating arrangements for the event, as Marlene had been a little...distracted. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Allen-san standing off to one side, watching her with an expression that made it seem as if she were some suspicious character rather than one of the people he was guarding.  
  
"We look forward to your solo, Leowen." The pre-pubescent prodigy she'd been talking to smiled shyly and bowed before he went off to rejoin his fellows.   
  
The princess noticed Allen had turned away from her now. Holding her gown carefully so as to minimize the cloth's swishing, she padfooted in her lady's slippers til she was standing directly behind him. She didn't really think she could sneak up on a Knight Caeli undetected, but it seemed like fun anyway.  
  
"Eries-hime?" Allen said before turning to face her.  
  
"Can't fool you today, can I?" she sighed mock-ruefully. "Speaking of fooling you..."  
  
"You didn't really mean what you told me in the library yesterday?" said Allen hopefully.  
  
"I was messing with your head, man!"[2] She grinned. "It's so easy I'm ashamed of myself. Whatever made you believe you could ask me such an impertinent question?"  
  
[2. Eries says this much like P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster would to some random chappie.]  
  
Allen shrugged his broad puff-sleeved shoulders and his blue eyes seemed suddenly guileless. "I'm not sure myself, it just seemed to me that we could talk about personal matters and it would be alright."  
  
Eries felt humbled by this explanation. and tentatively cleared her throat before replying, "Yes, well...it is, rather. You just caught me by surprise that time."  
  
"So you and Sian aren't--"  
  
"Actually...you might just have something there," said Eries, letting her gaze fall upon some distant, invisible point. "Sometimes when she wears her pants outfit with this one particular green vest she looks quite dashing--" she stopped as the startled-deer look on Allen's face caused her to break into incoherent chuckles.  
  
"You're messing with me again, aren't you." It was a comment, not a question.   
  
Eries smiled up at him by way of reply. "Allen-san, how about we make a deal? Do not ask me questions like that unless you _really_ need the answers, alright?"  
  
"Deal," he said agreeably, looking skyward. "May I escort you back to the royal box, Your Highness?" He offered his arm.  
  
"Certainly, Sir Knight," answered the Princess, putting one hand in the crook of his elbow. As they walked back, she asked, "How did you know it was me?"  
  
"Sound of your footsteps," was the reply.  
  
"Really?" _Impressive._  
  
Marlene-hime gave them a strange look when they got to the box. Eries pretended not to notice. There would be time enough for talk with Marlene when they got back home.   
  
  
[A/N: This chapter's still being written, i'm just posting it because it's been so long since i updated this, and i really want to keep it up, i'm just having trouble with it, is all. {shrug}]  
  
~next chapter: "Sarabande"~ 


End file.
